Month: February 2018

The Autonomy Ecosystem: Where and How It Begins (1 of 8) – a16z (Self Driving Cars and their potential effects on society). Be sure to watch all 8!

Beyond 2018 Dr Michio Kaku on the Future in the Next 5 10 20 Years

Sebastian Junger (author of Tribe) on @joerogan via @sspencer_smb

Notes:
The thing about technology is that it buffers us from consequences in the real world…..they need each other less and less to survive…..don’t need your neighbors….it all gets taken care of….deprives you of that essential reliance on other people….transition to a world with no community
The problem with the suburbs is …you can be totally isolated.
Choice between community and self sacrifice: Part of a small group trying to survive….
Problem: How can we have the close communal connection that buffers us from mental health problems…and have the benefits of modern society (tehchnology)
People find their own tribes….runners…etc
After 9/11….common goal…ptsd rates went down…. (although I would assume as a result some people have PTSD)
Commentary on mass shootings at 1:48

This is Who You Are Up Against, w/ Josh Wolfe – [Invest Like the Best …
“My guest this week is Josh Wolfe, a founding and managing partner at Lux Capital in New York City. Lux is a venture capital firm, but a highly unique one. They’ve spent more time in hard sciences and interesting nooks and crannies of the market than the typical VC firm.”
Josh Wolfe – Notes
Operate, Recruit, Storytell
Marriage of storyteller and executor/operator
Filter wide, funnel high
Biggest mistake: consensus buy and overpay (but try and not to)
Biggest mistake: minority opinion, 1 partner is really passionate about the idea
Devil’s advocate or red corner, explicit better to be implicit
Failure comes from a failure to imagine failure
Risk and Value can only be transformed not destroyed
32:38 – Crazy thesis – understanding the emotional needs of our pets (Animal cognition)China’s potential to pull ahead in healthcare, which Josh recently tweeted about:”China (ethically lax) races ahead with CRISPR (and T-cell infusion) in humans.Odds grow that the US (ethically cautious) will IMPORT our most important life saving drugs from China. May give new meaning to ‘made in China’”
Watch out for: bad unit economics, promotional (double edged sword, can lower cost of capital as well)
From Competitive advantage (Tech, scale,etc) flows good unit economics

Patagonia: Yvon Chouinard – How I Built This
“Patagonia. In 1973, Yvon Chouinard started the company to make climbing gear he couldn’t find elsewhere. Over decades of growth, he has implemented a unique philosophy about business, leadership and profit.”

Robotics, automation, and AI are reshaping the world around us in profound ways, affecting everything from financial market trading, to inflation, to factory floors and worker pay. In part 1 of today’s Big Picture segment, Jim Puplava discusses the technological revolution underway and what this means for the future of our economy and the society at large.

The need to explore is a fundamental driver of human progress. Without it, we would never have ventured off the plains of Africa, conquered the seas, or landed men on the moon. How has humanity managed to navigate the unknown? The process of exploration is one of mapmaking. Maps are not some relics of a bygone era. Maps are not artifacts that exist naturally in the world. Maps are products of the human mind. Mapmaking is the process through which our brains structure time and space; they help us put order around experience. Maps are the expression of human perception. If we want to navigate the world better, and if we want to learn how to predict the future, then we need to build better maps. Tim O’Reilly helps us do just that.

As cars become more like iPhones and less like just, well, cars — everything changes, from data to mapping to interfaces to security and more. How so? Where are we anyway, given all the hype around when self-driving cars will appear everywhere? And where are new opportunities in the space?

This episode of the a16z Podcast, based on a panel discussion from the most recent a16z Summit, features a16z research and deal team head Frank Chen in conversation with various companies doing different things in the autonomous space. Guests include: Taggart Matthiesen, head of product at Lyft, which is developing autonomous car technology; James Wu, CEO and co-founder of DeepMap, which focuses on full-stack HD mapping for autonomy; and Qasar Younis, CEO of Applied Intuition, which provides advance simulation software for autonomy.

In this conversation, we discuss his recent post the three body problem, why growth has been beating value, and why a strategy that he calls profound agnosticism—a take on risk parity—may be the most appropriate investing strategy in what he views as a very uncertain world. We also discuss some of his favorite lessons from the farm.

Adventures in Finance – 51 – Xi’s China: What Next For The Middle Kingdom?
Two great thinkers discussing China
With China’s plenum out of the way, what’s ahead for the Chinese economy? How much influence does the government have, and how successful has the transition to a consumer-based economy been? Finally, what does it all mean for the global growth and inflation outlook? Tian Yang of Variant Perception and Louis Gave of Gavekal weigh in. Plus, in the long/short segment, Grant Williams and Alex Rosenberg trade ICOs, Liberian leadership and lifeguard buffness.

“If reporters are to be the new detectives, and media the modern court, then let there be some rules.

Perhaps journalists should be required to video their interviews with accusers, as is the gold standard for police; the entire interviews can then be posted online, so that viewer/jurors know what questions were asked, and what weren’t, and see for themselves the body language of all.

Perhaps “investigative” journalists should have to take the same courses cops do, in how to interview people without leading them or suggesting the answers they want.

Those are facetious suggestions. Here’s one that isn’t: Reputable news organizations should swear off anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct unless there is a substantial body of evidence and an overwhelming public interest imperative.”